Nc-17 War Marked By High Drama Vote Comes Tuesday On Kissimmee's Law

It has all the elements of an engaging drama: a city of 28,000 fighting a powerful force in the nation's film industry.

The plot pits the five-member Kissimmee City Commission against the Motion Picture Association of America.

The subplot weaves a tale of opposition to government-imposed censorship vs. the city's obligation to protect its children from sexually explicit films.

The cast includes Richard Herring, the city commissioner who proposed a law to ban minors from movies with the new NC-17 rating, lawyers from the MPAA and the American Civil Liberties Union and theater owners. The supporting cast includes a multitude of city residents, ministers and morality watchdogs.

Kissimmee officials were thrown into the national spotlight last week when they moved ahead with a proposed law that would send theater owners to jail if they allowed kids into NC-17 movies.

NC-17, a voluntary designation set by the MPAA, means that no children younger than 17 are to be admitted, but the MPAA says Kissimmee is the first city in the nation to try to make that guideline law.

The proposed ordinance states that no children younger than 17 would be permitted in NC-17 or X-rated movies.

Theater owners and the MPAA, which rates films, say the city should not try to regulate the voluntary rating system, and last week appealed to the city to drop its efforts.

The city's refusal to back down brought cheers from some residents, who say they want the law and don't want outsiders like the MPAA coming in with self-serving requests.

The final decision will come Tuesday, after the second public hearing at Kissimmee City Hall. If the city adopts the law, the MPAA could get nasty.

Kissimmee officials voted 3-2 last Tuesday to hold a second hearing. Commissioners Frank Attkisson and Bob Makinson have sided with Herring, who has the support of Osceola County Ministers for Community Values and other residents.

Kissimmee Mayor John Pollet and Commissioner Bill Hart oppose the proposed ordinance. Pollet has said he doesn't think that commissioners should ''dictate morals to the public.''

None of the commissioners has said he plans to change his vote.

Vans Stevenson, director of state affairs for the MPAA in Washington, D.C., will make another appeal to commissioners Tuesday. The MPAA could sue the city, he said.

''We don't want to litigate,'' Stevenson said. ''That's the last thing we want to do.''

But he said the MPAA doesn't want government using its voluntary rating system to make law. The MPAA wants Kissimmee and other governments to trust that theater owners will abide by voluntary guidelines.

Stevenson, MPAA attorney Gail Markels, Cobb Theater attorney Bill Fleming and managers of the three theaters in Kissimmee appealed to the city last week to use MPAA guidelines and not adopt an NC-17 law. But commissioners voted 3-2 to proceed to a final public hearing.

Stevenson said the association is concerned that filmmakers will become discouraged and stop having their movies rated if such laws are imposed. They are not required to have films rated.

The Classification and Rating Administration, established by the MPAA in 1968, is the board that gives the G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17 rating to motion pictures. The rating board was set up to give parents a guideline to which movies are suitable for children.

Stevenson said he doesn't want to see filmmakers stop using the rating system because parents would no longer know what movies are suitable for their children.

''Everybody loses,'' he said. ''Parents aren't informed anymore.''

The NC-17 rating was adopted in September after pressure from filmmakers, critics and theater owners to establish an adults-only rating that distinguishes films with adult themes from hard-core pornography. The movies previously had been lumped together under the X rating.

Before the new rating, most studios wouldn't release X-rated films and insisted that controversial material be edited so the movies could receive an R rating, a practice many filmmakers consider censorship.

Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures would not comment on the city's efforts to ban youngsters from NC-17 movies or talk about the new rating in general. Spokesmen for the companies said they were instructed not to comment.

Theater owners in Kissimmee say they will not play NC-17 movies, so they don't understand why the city is bothering with a law.

The theater owners and the MPAA are expected to get reinforcements Tuesday from the American Civil Liberties Union.

''We're in opposition to this ordinance,'' said Warren Keiner, chairman of the Central Florida chapter, which covers Osceola, Orange, Seminole and Lake counties.